Bring your Windows XP PC over to your Windows 7 PC for FREE in a few simple steps!

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a less technically savvy friend, “I finally convinced my company to buy me a new computer.” With the positive buzz generated by Windows 7, he was very excited to replace his extremely aged desktop PC, running Windows XP, with a fast new laptop. However, he had been using this machine for about 3 years and found the thought of migrating all of his files daunting.

He didn’t want to be forced to keep the old PC sitting under his desk if he needed to run an old program or to constantly have to search through a backup drive if he missed a file. So I immediately started thinking about how I could help him. He needed to be able to access all of his important files spread across the hard drive and also needed to understand which of his applications (if any) would require upgrades in order to run on Windows 7. After a few minutes of consideration, it hit me

The Proposed FREE Solution

While VMware Workstation could work, it might have been overkill for his particular needs. Instead, this would be a perfect opportunity to use VMware Player and VMware Converter to painlessly migrate him to Windows 7. And the best part? Both of those VMware applications are available for free!

How will these two great products help? VMware Converter will quickly bundle up his entire Windows XP desktop–including files, applications, and the operating system–into a virtual machine. VMware Player will then run the virtual machine containing his Window XP desktop on his new Windows 7 laptop, in a window. This is sort of like “Picture in a Picture” on your TV, only in this case, it’s a “PC in a PC.” This will make it very simple for him to access old applications or files when needed, even at the same time that he is working in Windows 7.

The Results

When he ran VMware Player for the first time and saw his Windows XP machine boot up inside a window on his desktop, he thought it was magical! When I showed him how to run an application and hide the VM in Unity mode he was blown away. The ability to quickly and easily access his files and programs completely eliminated all of his anxiety about the move to Windows 7.

How to do this yourself If you are planning to move to Windows 7, you can use these tools on your own to get the same results. Below are the simple steps I followed to make the move to Windows 7 simple and painless. (Click on pictures to enlarge)

2) Install VMware Converter on the Windows PC you would like to virtualize to run in Windows 7. I recommend using the default setting.

3) Run VMware Converter after installation. Click the “Convert Machine” button in the toolbar to start the wizard.

4) Conversion Wizard Step 1: The source type should be “Powered-on Machine” and specific powered-on machine should be set to “This local machine”. Click Next.

5) Conversion Wizard Step 2: Destination type should be “VMware Workstation or Other VMware virtual machine.” The VMware Product selected should be “VMware Workstation 6.5”. Give your virtual machine a name, it can be anything, I chose “My XP PC”. Choose a location to save the virtual machine. I selected an external hard drive to make it easier to copy it to the new PC. You can save it to the new PC over the network, but for this example, I wanted to keep it simple.

6) Conversion Wizard Step 3: In the “Devices” section click “edit” and increase the memory to 512MB. This can be increased up to 1024MB if your new machine has 4 GB or more memory.

7) Conversion Wizard Step 3: In the “Networks” section click “edit”. Most people will see multiple network adapters (NICs) listed. Typically the NICs listed are wired ethernet, WiFi, and a (FireWire/iLink/1394) port. Select “NAT” in the drop down list box under Connection Type next to the ethernet and WiFi network adapters. If you are unsure, select NAT for all

17) If you stored the virtual machines to an external hard drive as I did, you can run your Windows XP virtual machines from the external hard drive or copy the virtual machine to your new Windows 7 PC’s hard drive. I copied it to the “Documents” folder on the Windows 7 PC. With the large hard drives found on most new PCs, I recommend copying it to your new machine’s internal hard drive so you can quickly access applications and files as need. If you start to use the Windows XP virtual machines less and less, I would move it to an external hard drive to keep it as a backup in case you need it.

18) Now we are ready to run our Windows XP machines with VMware Player in Windows 7. Click the VMware Player icon to open up the program.

19) Click “Open a Virtual Machine”.

20) Find the file with the name you gave your virtual machine in step #5, select it and click “Open”.

8 thoughts on “Bring your Windows XP PC over to your Windows 7 PC for FREE in a few simple steps!”

7 has an XP mode, I read. So, now I am wondering pro’s / con’s of the VMware approach versus the 7 XP mode. I just got 7. Just got new computer. Old computer is staring at me. Same problem as the fella in this story. Might be helpful to compare this approach to the 7 XP mode approach.

What does one do if the converter won’t even install? I’m trying to install this on an XP SP3 machine.
I’ve downloaded the last 2 or 3 versions of the converter (4.0.1) and when I click on the downloaded file, absolutely nothing happens.
Sometimes I get a popup warning me that I don’t have sufficient rights. Most of the time, I get nothing. No error popups and nothing in the event logs.
I’ve tried installing using my normal login (which has admin rights and when logged in as the machine administrator.

I tried the steps above several times but when I go to open the VM machine with VM Player on my new WIN7 machine it says FILE ACCESS ERROR… may be an issue with either the host or guest operating system.
ANY SUGGESTIONS? I am thinking about buying workstation with a support contract just so I can get help setting this up.

I have a dual core system running Win 7. I need to use Player to load either Win95 or DOS or Win3.1 but I have no floppy drive, it being a SATA system. I have a USB-floppy drive which Player recognises but will not run SetUp from. It stops when it should reformat the virtual drive to FAT away from NTFS.
Has anyone an idea what I should do?

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